Yanks’ new fall guys
Next-gen October arrives
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THERE WAS a time when the homegrown Yankees playing in the postseason for the first time were named Jeter and Mariano and Pettitte, not Judge and Sanchez and Severino. Yet here we are now a couple of decades later, and the new youthful core is ready to receive its first taste of October baseball in pinstripes in Tuesday’s AL wild-card showdown against the Twins — now that we have arrived at the end of the first tangible step for this impressively accelerated rebuild in the form of a 91-win regular season.
Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez, with 85 combined home runs and seemingly just as many electrifying moments throughout their first full year together in the Bronx, and Luis Severino with the ball in his explosive right hand, a new ace for a new generation, will be front and center on Tuesday night with a chance for so much more, both in the coming weeks and over the longer term.
Their forebears in franchise lore also were terrific regular-season players, and viewed as special talents as soon as they arrived. But remember, they became true legends in this game and in this town largely due to their cold-blooded postseason exploits. All three current players — all legitimate firsttime All-Stars in breakout campaigns — get the chance now to begin cementing their legacies and taking their Yankee careers to new heights like so many before them. “They’ve obviously had huge seasons for us and have carried our team,” veteran DH Matt Holliday said following Sunday’s meaningless 2-1 loss to the Blue Jays. “They’re fun to watch, young guys that have worked really hard and are really good people. That makes it even more fun to watch. I’m looking forward to seeing them perform in the postseason.” During Sunday’s game, the Yanks announced that they finally have made the right call to “significantly” expand the protective netting down the base lines to better protect their fans starting in 2018, after a female toddler was struck in the face on Sept. 20 by a Todd Frazier liner. Those changes won’t be in effect on Tuesday night, of course, but this certainly has been a new-look Yankees squad all season as overhauled successfully on the fly by GM Brian Cashman.
There have been so many significant contributions up and down the roster, from Didi Gregorius and Starlin Castro in the middle of the infield and the middle of the lineup, to the emergence of strikeout machine Chad Green in a deep and revamped bullpen to integral contributions from other veterans and youngsters alike.
Clearly, as Chase Headley noted, “anything can happen in one game,” and that always is the peril of MLB’s wild-card format. That is why the Yanks rightly continued pushing until their AL East hopes finally were dashed by the Red Sox on Saturday. “I think probably what we’ve been through the last five weeks should have helped them, even what we went through this week,” Girardi said of his team. “So I’m hoping that experience helps them. We believe in them. They’ve played really, really well. So let’s see what happens.”
Girardi still has a couple of interesting roster and/or lineup decisions to make over the next two days. Most notable of those will be whether to start Holliday or Headley or outfielder Aaron Hicks as the designated hitter against Twins veteran righty Ervin Santana.
“I’ll do whatever they tell me, just kind of wait and see,” said Holliday, who has endured an up-and-down year but is 5-for-12 with a couple of homers in his career against Santana. “I don’t know if I’ll be in there, but I’ve done pretty well against him.
“We have a lot of depth and a lot of good players, and Joe’s got tough decisions to make.”
Girardi already has been unequivocal — and correct, in my opinion — in his decision to stick with Sanchez behind the plate Tuesday night, despite his league-leading passed ball total. t’s hard to fathom now, but it’s surely a safe bet that the organization’s other resolutions where its young core was concerned — returning Severino from the bullpen to the starting rotation following a shaky 2016, and naming Judge the team’s starting right fielder over Hicks at the end of spring training — also have turned out to be sound ones for the Yanks. “I’m excited to see them and what they can do,” Headley said. “I think all of our young guys have really good heads on their shoulders, and I think they’ve handled everything so well all year. So I’m not really worried about that. I’m just excited for them to have the opportunity to play in the postseason.”
Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte and so many others once had to receive their first October chances, too. The team’s new prized core will begin to take its turn on Tuesday.
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